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US Deputy Secretary of State
Matthew Bryza is the Chief US diplomat in the Nagorno-Karabakh
Conflict
The US Co-chair of the
OSCE Minks Group, Matthew Bryza, announced Monday that the
liberated territories surrounding the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
will be turned over to Azerbaijan with plans to resettle those
areas with so-called Azeri refugees and that Karabakh will be
granted a new status, the nature of which is the subject of
negotiations.
This is an alarming
revelation because, if true, it indicates that certain
concessions have been agreed to in peace talks mediated by the
Minsk Group.
Bryza also commented in an
interview with Ekho Moskvy that the creation of a new status for
Karabakh is the concession that Baku is willing to make as
diplomatic gesture.
“When President Aliyev was
in Moscow, he said very constructively, that first of all there
must be a corridor linking Karabakh with Armenia. This is a huge
step forward that he said this. And he spoke of the right to
self-government for the population of Karabakh,” said Bryza who
explained that “Before that [Aliyev] and Azerbaijani officials
always talked about a regime in Karabakh that is criminal, that
is illegitimate. Now he talks about self-government. That means,
that step by step he reflects the reality, and he is preparing
his population for compromises-difficult-but that will be made,
I hope.”
Bryza’s optimism, however,
goes counter to another point he made when he announced that any
peace agreement should correspond with the Helsinki accords,
which among other points include provisions that indicated that
right to self-determination and territorial integrity go hand in
hand in resolution of disputes. This means, that the so-called
new leaf that Aliyev has turned should not be applauded as a
concession, but rather a state following international norms.
Are we at a point where leaders who have continuously violated
these norms now are being rewarded for not embracing but merely
hinting at their willingness to adhere to them?
Clearly, yes. Or else how
do we explain the Obama administration rewarding Azerbaijan with
a 20-percent increase in aid, which includes a significant boost
in military aid? What happens when Aliyev doesn’t keep his
promise and uses the military aid provided by the US against
Armenian civilians in Karabakh? It was merely a year ago that
Daniel Fried warned Congressional leaders that Aliyev’s
bellicose statements were threatening the fragile peace process.
The people of Karabakh, in
no uncertain terms, exercised their right to self-determination
and through a referendum declared independence, adopted a
constitution, which clearly stipulates that the liberated
territories are part of Karabakh, and, since then have
established democratic norms, the likes of which are far from
reality in Azerbaijan, Armenia and even the US.
For Karabakh to not be
included in the peace talks-a process that elevates the right to
self-determination principle-further speaks to the absurdity of
Bryza’s comments, while at the same time demonstrating the
dangerous precedent being set in this and future conflict
resolution processes.
It is dangerous and a
threat to the national security of both Armenia and Karabakh if,
according to Bryza, the current focus of the talks is the
“status” issue, because it signals that an agreement already has
been reached to return the liberated territories.
Armenian foreign ministry
spokesperson Tigran Balayan issued a statement Monday saying
that Armenian and Azeri presidents did not discuss the return of
territories during their meeting in Prague, but rather focused
on the status issue, since “it is the focal point of the
Karabakh conflict resolution.”
This glaring contradiction
in statements by a Minsk Group co-chair and the Armenian foreign
ministry raises another critical point in this process, and
leads one to believe that Armenia is not being forthcoming and
through evasive responses to one-off questions is attempting to
veil the possibility that it has, in fact, agreed to the return
of the liberated territories.
As this circuitous
diplomatic banter continues, Karabakh and the entire Karabakh
liberation movement is being jeopardized with consequences so
far reaching that it will impact every Armenian around the
world.
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